Saturday, February 14, 2015

Seriously, this thing is real...

So I have been banging on the
“glass capacity” issue for a while now and this week I chatted with several
people who are dealing with this growing problem.First, there’s still folks unaware that
glass, especially ¼” clear, is getting harder and harder to get.That is on everyone in the chain.Suppliers, Fabricators, Glaziers, and the
media… Communicating about what is happening in the industry is a must.And while this issue has not affected the
entire industry yet, the way it is heading I am pretty sure it will… so as I
have said before- be proactive.On that
note, I did hear from a few people who are struggling with the best ways to be
proactive.Some fabricators are developing
programs to reserve glass but some of those programs carry risk side (penalties
if you don’t take the glass when scheduled is one), and with the volatile
schedules of the general contractor, the glaziers are wary about
commitments.Last the fear is by
struggling to get glass, we as an industry could be setting ourselves up for
losing that part of the building to other materials.Now while I don’t see “glass-less” buildings,
designers could choose to go with less glass area… which is scary and ironic
since we fought so hard to deflect efforts to limit glass usage in the codes.So again its communication through the chain,
as this is a legitimate issue and one that is not going to go away
quickly.Making sure everyone knows what
the obstacles are, being truthful with lead-times, pushing for guaranteed sizes
etc.In the end, all of these things, as
well as other proactive measures will help and also make everyone more
efficient to boot.And if you have not
been touched with this tightening of materials, congrats, but be prepared as I
have good feeling you will.

Elsewhere…

-- I know I say it over and over, but
sometimes when something is so good, it deserves the constant repeating. Katy
Devlin’s blogs on Glass Magazine are not to be missed.Last week’s recap of a facades conference was
incredible.So good that I think I may need
to take a few months off to recharge because my stuff is not even in the same
stratosphere.

-- On my last post I noted one of the buildings that was chosen
as “the coolest” in 2014 and wondered who fabricated the glass… well sure
enough it did not take long for the always-excellent Bill Coady of Guardian to
pipe up with the info.The glass used
was Guardian SunGuard Neutral 40 on #2 and Neutral 78/65 on #5. (Triple Pane) The
glass was fabricated by Garibaldi Glass-Burnaby. Congrats to all and thank you Mr. Coady for reading the blog and replying!

--

Great news this week about a good
friend of mine, Steve Cohen. PPG announced that Steve has joined them as National Architectural
Manager-Northeast. Quite a coup for PPG
since I believe Steve is one of the most talented guys in our industry. And while I am biased since I like Steve
personally, I can tell you from a professional side in dealing with him, the
guy is fantastic. Great move for both
sides here.